French Open Scheduling Is Making Nadal Grumpy

By

Tom Perrotta

Updated May 31, 2013 2:53 p.m. ET

Paris—The daily schedule of a Grand Slam is a delicate thing. On Thursday, French Open officials had to spread out 63 matches over 16 courts. Each court must be balanced: There can't be one with all men's singles matches, or one with all women's singles matches. The biggest names need to play on the biggest courts. Television broadcasters must be taken into account. And then there's the weather.

As far as Rafael Nadal is concerned, the last variable wasn't given enough consideration on Thursday. After waiting around all day to play, Nadal, who was scheduled to play after a men's match and a women's match, was rained off before his second-round contest could start. But the man he would potentially face in the third round, Fabio Fognini, was scheduled earlier in the day and managed to finish before the play was called.

The result? Nadal, a seven-time champion here, had to play at 11:00 a.m. Friday, and now he'll have to play again on Saturday, while Fognini had a day off. He called the scheduling decision "wrong."

"That's not fair," Nadal said. "Today I was playing almost three hours on court, and my opponent was watching the TV in the locker room."

Nadal said he was told that Fognini and his opponent, Lukas Rosol, took the court a little earlier because Rosol had to play doubles, too. (Rosol knocked Nadal out of the second round of Wimbledon last year; Nadal missed the rest of the season with a knee injury.) That logic didn't impress Nadal.

"I am sorry, but that's a joke," he said. "You have one more week to play doubles if you want to play doubles." Nadal insisted he wasn't angry about the decision, just pointing out that it was incorrect. "I don't want to keep talking, because it seems like I am the bad guy saying that, but that's the real thing, and everybody here knows that's not right."

So far, Nadal has had a bigger problem than poor scheduling: It feels more like Paris in January than Paris in June. Nadal hasn't been able to practice as much as he likes because of the rain. Worse still, cold air and damp courts take the sting out of his topspin forehand and make him vulnerable, especially against men who have lots of firepower.

In the first round, Nadal lost the first set against the hard-hitting Daniel Brands. On Friday, he lost another opening set, this time to Martin Klizan, a wiry lefty with a potent forehand, before winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. At last year's French Open, Nadal lost one set in the entire tournament, and that was in the final.

Fognini wouldn't seem a likely candidate to upset Nadal, no matter how tired Nadal is. Earlier this month, Nadal dumped Fognini in straight sets in Rome, and one would expect the same Saturday, assuming Nadal feels more like himself. He's not so sure.

"Tomorrow will be a really tough match, and I need to play better than today," he said. "I need to do it."

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